Curious, do hot air balloons scare your neddys?

cremedemonthe

cremedemonthe

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Just curious, I don't have horses and haven't asked any of my customers so thought I'd put the question on here to see if they pose a problem to horse riders.
It's lovely to see them but was wondering about the wider implications of them flying low.
Yesterday I was sitting at my laptop minding my own business and 4 hot air balloons fly over my house, 2 quite low, can see the pilots to wave at.
Thay sound like fire breathing dragons as they try to gain height.
We've had 8 balloons in the last week, 2 were very low and crashed into each other right above my house!
Lovely day for it I suppose!
It's a regular occurrence now, hot air balloons over the top looking in the window at you. One was SO LOW one day we honestly thought he was going to hit the roof!
Scared the life out of my Mum's cockatiel in his cage as it loomed over the house, blew the bird right off his perch!
Then half hour later another one floated by!
Think they are cloning them over the back of here, they take off about 1/4 mile away.
What are your experiences?
Oz
 
Horses seem fine but know of several collies that were scared stiff of them, my sisters cleared off and found miles away and mine would know they were coming before we could see them.
 
I suppose it depends on how close and whether it is taking off well or crashing down unexpectedly if they are close as you are describing I would imagine it could cause a panic. One took off at Hickstead one year when I was there for the SE Unaff Champs it was a couple of fields over from the parking area. I don't remember any horse panicking although perhaps it wasn't quite close enough and it was at the end of the day and most had gone home. My boy has been known to stop and watch them when we have seen them out riding even when they have been some distance away and fairly high so he does notice them.
 
We get a lot of them, yesterday 3 came overhead, 1 of which was pretty low. To be honest, none of the horses seem to take much notice - we have approx 20 horses where I am.

If they came low enough to land in/next to the horses I'm sure there would be a bit of a scuffle from some, but they do generally land a little way away from horse fields.
 
We had one land in the school horses paddock one year - they barely looked at it. We got a bottle of champagne from the pilot.

Only time I've had the school horses get upset was when Concorde came in to Christchurch airport - the school was a block away from the end of the runway.

They hooned off around the paddock for a couple of laps. None of the other planes ever bothered them, not even the massive American planes that go down to the Antarctic - they flew so low you could see the rivets holding it together.
 
Mine watch balloons transfixed with occassional snorts and nodding. Not scared out of their minds but they do register the wierdness of the flying red noisy cloud. But i've never had one really close, more like a few fields away type of distance.
 
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Another one who's equine couldn't give a damn but the one dog rips everything to bits and starts going berserk when they are barely a dot on the horizon!
 
No, I've seen them look up and register one is there on the horizon though, when I hadn't seen it. One once came right low over a field where one of mine was on livery, landed next door I think, and they had a great time cantering up and down and snorting at it, but they were clearly just having fun snorting and running rather than being at all frightened.
Not sure my dog has ever noticed one! If she has, I can safely say there's been no reaction from her :D
 
We had a very experienced Clydesdale mare come almost face to face with a hot air balloon at the end of the lane from our yard, which is at the top of pretty steep valley, she didn't turn a hair, neither did the Appaloosa who was with her and always needed her to be the nanny in big traffic.
BUT another Clydesdale mare had only been her a few weeks when one of the blimmin things landed in our field and dragged the drystone wall into next-door. That mare was most upset and never did like them if she saw them after that. I was most upset and annoyed because while we were dealing with the horses the balloonists scarpered and left us to rebuild the wall at our own expense. Fortunatley we don't seem to get as many coming over as we did a few years ago
 
Capriole said:
Sounds like my pony LOOKOUTTHERE'SAROCK!!
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The man that lived next door to my old yard had helicopters so he would start them up and they would just appear from behind the trees next to the school, this was no problem. But if there happens to be one leaf on a plant that is a different colour to the rest we may end up going the other direction at speed. Silly boy!!
 
Interested but not upset by them. The cows get more upset and the dog barks and runs away from it back to the safety of her bed!
 
My old boy was a complete and utter plod......... until one day a hot air balloon came down low over here and landed in the field next to where he and his field companion were.

They both went ballistic; it wasn't just the hugeness of the bulk of the thing, it was the dragon-puffing noise the flame-jet made as the cussed thing was trying to gain height, and failing. We've got a baloon-flight company quite near to us and since then they've expanded so we do see them occasionally but none has gone over us quite that way again, thank goodness.

Poor old boy never reacted to anything much, but this really frightened him rigid. So god-alone knows what it would have done to something more stressy. It could have well caused an accident if we'd been on the road.
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
They both went ballistic; it wasn't just the hugeness of the bulk of the thing, it was the dragon-puffing noise the flame-jet made as the cussed thing was trying to gain height, and failing. .
Click to expand...

See I would have thought the noise would have scared horses, as it is loud and quite disturbing but most people who have answered this thread say their horse are not bothered by it, nought stranger than equines!
Oz
 
Two of ours are fine with them, one is completely obsessed and will just stand and stare - the noise from them makes them jump but otherwise no problems.
However one really panics, she's on edge whenever she spots one and paces around stressing herself out - if one comes overhead and makes the dreaded dragon noise then she goes into full on panic, I would never want to be riding her when that happens as she just flips. She's also the one that hates low flying aircraft.
 
Last year I sold my gelding to a young teenager. A few months later I got a report on his first show.

They got to the show ground, found a nice quiet place to park and unloaded him and tied him up. They then went off to get the riders number.

When they got back they found a Bouncy Castle erected right alongside where they had parked. My gelding - only 6 years old was standing there with not a care in the world. Later his head was bobbing up and down as the kids bounced in the castle - the activity and noise just didn't bother him at all.
 
We get balloons several times a week so the horses are not that bothered now only if they end up landing nearby then I make a point of getting them in to avoid their high jinks. The dog thing is due to a high pitch noise that we can't hear but the dogs can when they open the burner.
 
My old gelding, 23yrs old and pretty unflappable really does not like hot air balloons. Seen a few in the distance when I have been riding and he is fixed on them. The one time one came close I was luckily only a few metres from home and I had to loop his reins through his throatlash and let him loose in the field with his tack on as he was beside himself. The others weren't bothered though and soon calmed him down.

We live near a small airfield and there are parachutes out most weekends, he doesn't seem bothered by them but I wouldn't want to ride him close to where the land just in case!
 
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